EgoTrip hunted down Brian Cross (AKA B+), the photographer for the iconic RapPages cover featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and a topless woman. RapPages’ art director at the time, Brent Rollins, also shed light on the photoshoot. A$AP fans may be more familiar with the BLVCK SCVLE cover that was inspired by this shot.

Read an excerpt below and head over to EgoTrip land for the full story.

B+: It was a little awkward. He was fine with it. And I think that him being fine with it made [the model] be okay with it, actually. She felt awkward. It is a very vulnerable position to be in. Just think about it. You put your hands behind your head and you have a guy come up behind you and feel your breasts. That’s a pretty intimate position to put yourself in. And his hands really are on your breasts.

I think the “theory” of it was like it was quite a glamorous photograph of Janet Jackson. It’s a very sexual photograph of Janet Jackson, and we were flipping it in the sense that the model wasn’t Janet Jackson, and it was the person who is behind her that’s the star. And she was just the prop. And it changed the dynamic of the photo. He was cool. In a funny kind of ODB kind of way. He made some kind of joke. Some kind of light joke. You had to properly cup her [breasts] to get the shot right. To make it look like Janet you had to kind of hold them up and push them up so that they start to take the shape you want. He was properly cupping her breasts.

It didn’t even feel awkward in the end. In the end we got it done.

The post The Story Behind Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Classic Cover appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The Rap-Up conducted an informative interview with Brent Rollins, best known as the visual genius behind ego trip magazine. He talks about his design aesthetic being in the spirit of hip-hop beyond signifiers like graffiti arrows, working with photography, biters, the changes in album packaging and how advances in technology are creating less canvasses for artists.

Some excerpts:

You know what, doing some kind of public space would be really fun. Like a nightclub, doing something where people can walk in and get taken to somplece else. That’s an exciting idea, something physical, especially now man, everything’s digital man, it’s wack, no one has stuff anymore. No one touches things, experiences things, you know? I think it’s about giving people a real experience.

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For me, it starts with the idea, the photography and the collaging and stuff, that’s what it’s made of but it has to start with an idea first. A lot of people, when they see something, they look at the surface and don’t see the thought process behind it. For instance, people that diss Apple computers, they say “Oh it’s just about the design, they want it to be cool” and yeah, maybe it looks nice, but the design is really well thought out. It’s not just that it looks great, but it works great. The design helps you work with it, interact with it. People look at the surface without thinking about the function. So with album covers, the function of the design is that it has to communicate an idea. it’s not just about the style, or the collage, or I’ma take a photograph and put this color on top of it, it’s about what’s my idea behind it first. I think people who bite, they just look at what’s on the surface.

He also shares that his orange socks and Air Jordans appear in the movie poster for Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which is the type of trivia which we hope will come in handy some day.

(vi@ NahRight)

The post An Interview with Brent Rollins appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.